It's only a matter of when. Even if all strictly computational AI research stops tomorrow, we'll be able to genetically enhance human intelligence by and by, even if it takes several thousand genetic manipulations to do it.

When direct neural I/O becomes a thing, millions (or billions) of people will be directly, electronically linked via the internet. Tell me that's not a new form of intelligence.

For that matter, we'll almost certainly develop at least one form of AI the way nature did. We'll cobble up some genetic algorithms primed to develop the silicon equivalent of neurons, give them some problems to solve, and perhaps a robot or two to control, and we eventually "grow" an AI that way.

But look, it's not the end of us, or anything else. We merge with the things. Our thoughts become linked with theirs. If we can transfer all memory, then eventually we *become* the AI, perhaps with a few spare physical copies of ourselves kept for amusement purposes.

Will AIs fight? There will be conflicts, of course. There always are. Resource conflicts, however, will be minimal. An AI doesn't need much, and can figure out how to get enough more efficiently than we can. Conflicts will be over other matters and are unlikely to be fatal.

Wozniak, et. al. need to chill. It's just evolution.

No, they don't. I maintain however, that "moral validity" rarely has significant real world consequences, or is used to justify a change in economic conditions that inevitably benefit the wealthy.

This technology will be developed to the point where traits like intelligence, disease resistance, emotional stability, beauty, et. al. will be almost guaranteed. If it's outlawed in one nation state, wealthy people will just have it done in another. Their children will benefit. The poor will be at a financial AND genetic disadvantage.

The hand wringing ethical concerns of "scientists" will have no effect on this whatsoever.

Let's hope he becomes the Windows designer in chief.

He's right. The rest of you who, like me, grew up reading science fiction, are wrong.

We run out of hydrocarbons of all types before this century is out. They become too expensive to be useful long before then. We use up the popular fissionables too. We have some hope of maintaining industrial scale electricity if we start developing thorium generators - like, yesterday. If we don't, you can pretty much kiss industrial civilization at the current scale goodbye before the century is out.

All of this information is available to anyone with google and a calculator. For the unusually lazy, start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... (and buy the book.).

Billions will starve by 2100. Ecological overshoot happens to all species eventually. It's happened to local populations countless times before. It just happens to be occurring on a global scale for the first time. After it's all sorted out, the remaining 250 million (or less depending on the number of nukes involved), will be unusually sensible.

It's not the end of the world, per se, but it's the end of the world we grew up in. The one we dream of, with FTL, space colonies and the like will be stillborn. We blew our resources on ipads, pet food and television, instead of large scale nuclear power, sustainable agriculture and social, political and economic systems that don't involve large numbers of nuclear weapons in the hands of testosterone soaked sociopaths.

Cheers!

1) Buy raw materials.
2) Download molecular template for popular entertainment drugs.
3) Profit!

Seriously, when complex chemical printing becomes cheap and ubiquitous (and it will), the war on drugs will get even *more* ridiculous than it is now.

On the hilariously amusing side, pharmaceutical company profits go into the toilet.

Nor will they bother. They will simply abduct him. Laws be damned. That's the naked reality behind the US government's smarmy rhetoric about "human rights." It all stops, when US officials are threatened.

Because in the end, that's where this goes.

Since clearly, they knew of none of these things years ago when Snowden was first sequestered.

As Snowden has correctly stated, it's a ruse to allow the USA to take him into custody. Apparently Sweden will do its questioning, probably drop the case for lack of evidence and the USA can go twist in the wind.

What this really says is just how the USA's power position in the world has changed. Sweden has read the writing on the wall. They'll respond to pressure from the US state department just as much as they need to, which is now apparently, not much.

Um. Apparently not.

I'm not antisocial. That said, I'm not into finding friends at work, nor am I interested in idle chit chat. I'm busy. My day is frequently intense. Between cranky servers, writing code, meetings and frequent one-off projects, I often don't have *time* to discuss your favorite TV show, your vacation, your children's school problems, your pet's illness or your new car. Really, I just don't. On slow days, I'll cheerfully chat about any of these, but most if the time, you'll find my nose in the nearest grindstone - a method that's kept me steadily employed.

If you think that makes someone a "dick," I foresee many short term jobs in your future.

And not much else. Look, I've walked out of interviews where they asked me goofball, irrelevant questions. As for job description listing requirements like "5 years of Windows 8.1 programming" (no joke), they don't even get a look. I no longer have to work for irrational crazies.

This, by the way, explains your "talent shortage." Want good employees? Fine. CUT THE BULLSHIT! Ask relevant, job-related questions - and nothing else. You don't need to know my community activities, why manhole covers are round, or my favorite band.

With enough people using SnoopSnitch ( https://play.google.com/store/... ), which detects Stingray cell phone trackers, and a collection site on Facebook or any other social media site (Reddit sounds like a good candidate), the locations of these things could be mapped and published in jig time.

That's what happens when you don't throw away everything in the old universe.